Housing Part 2

Thank you for your encouraging words in the comments of my last post. They really gave me much-needed encouragement when I was feeling quite hopeless. Here's what happened...

After hearing from the Assistant Dean of my dorm that it would be too much of a hassle to move me rather than politely ask the person to whom they sold my room to relocate, I sent a long letter to him, along with a counselor at our school's health services, the secretary who blamed this on me, the Housing Office, and the Dean of Students. I outlined to them why I am so frustrated, and explained to them that this administrative mess-up is only the latest in a string of unfounded headaches this school has put me through.

I told them that it's odd how all this happens to me when I applied to graduate in Nov. 2005 like every other senior and followed every other procedure in a timely fashion. Furthermore, I told them that I feel like a senior who is completely uninvited to his own graduation. I asked them to reconsider their housing decision--do they really want to put a senior through the hassle and humiliation of moving in his last week here?

Then I ended the letter with a warning. I wrote that if this situation indeed results in my removal from the room I will consider pressing legal charges against the university for this and other incidents I've had with the school.

Apparently that was a zinger, a good way to end the letter and put up a fight. The Assistant Dean asked to meet with me, and in the meeting he told me that he and the secretary are on my side, that they much prefer moving the other person over kicking me out of my room. Nice to hear, but a little suspect in light of the e-mail he had sent me a few days earlier. He also told me the secretary was sorry for blaming me for this situation. Isn't it funny how when you get all serious and threaten to sue that apologies are like a dime a dozen? I never wanted an apology, I just wanted the dignity to remain in my room in my last few days like every other senior in the dorms.

He told me that it's embarrassing and that apparently I'm not the only person this has happened to. I told him that's quite unfortunate, but that my consideration to press legal charges still stands. I then explained what sort of damages I'd seek.

My father, who also got sick of hearing about all the crap the school has put me through, decided to contact the Office of the Provost, so they got involved, too. I later found out that thanks to all of the feather-ruffling my father and I did, the university decided to launch a (formal?) investigation into why this situation happened in the first place.

Three hours later, I get an e-mail saying that I can stay in my room through graduation. I sighed with relief, and although shaken by the whole ugly experience, I found a little clarity to study for my last final exam the next day.

Happy ending, right? Wrong.

This morning at around 8:30 a.m. I awake out of a deep sleep to the sound of someone banging on my door and vigorously trying to unlock it. My heart was pounding fast, but I decided not to make a movement. The person trespassed into my room, and when he noticed me in it he quickly left and shut the door. He then stood right outside my room and spoke into a large walky-talky type of transmittor. "Room 151 is occupied, room 151 is occupied," I heard him clearly. "There's someone in the room. Is he legal?!"

Is he legal?!?! Excuse me? That was enough to get me out of my bed. I opened my door and saw a heavily wrinkled man in a maintenance uniform. He looked almost as terrified to see me as I was when he woke me up so suddenly that EARLY on a SUNDAY MORNING. In my tired morning voice, and with my unflattering morning face, I sternly told him that I have written permission to stay in my room from the Housing Office through graduation. He hesitated and just left me.

I tried to go to sleep, but could not. In my mind I was rehearsing what could have happened, and what sort of fierce stand I would have to take next in this battle over my last few days here. Perhaps it was best that I did not fall back asleep because about 15 minutes later the same thing happened again.

When I heard the rattling of keys in my door lock I quickly sat up. I fearfully imagined the police or some group of maintenance staff coming to evict me forcefully. Instead, a plump lady rolled into my room with a few people standing beside her. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she shouted as she backtracked out of my room. Like a defensive reflex, I quickly blurted that I have permission to stay in this room from the Housing Office. She suggested that I put a sign on my door. I did so and then managed to fall back asleep.

Then later today I left the dorm to say goodbye to a friend who was flying home for the summer. When I tried to return I found that I had secretly been stripped of my access to the building. I waived my card in front of the sensor and it let out the beep that signals "no access." I futiley tried to pull the locked door open. I then waived again, completely incredulous. "No access." I hung around my building terrified that now that most students were gone I'd have to wait a long time till I someone would notice me and let me back in. Luckily, about ten minutes later I found someone to let me in the building.

Well, what can I say? I'm completely flabbergasted. They say I get to stay in my room, yet they treat me as if I should have moved out. At 8:30 a.m. on a Sunday they question if I am "legal," and then they lock me out of the building. Lovely, lovely. What an ugly way to end college.